Connor is 4

Presents in the morning, followed by his favorite breakfast (rice pudding) and playing with all of his new Batman toys!...

After church was spent building his new Lego's with Dad!...

Followed by his favorite dinner (grilled hotdogs & cheetos) and some tasty cake!

We hope you had a great day, Connor!! You are such an amazing little boy who has blessed our lives so very much!! I love your smile, I love to see how much you love to play with all your Batman toys, and I love watching you being a good helper around the house!! Happy Birthday, Connor-man! We love you!!

Pictures of the Birthday Girl!

I tried getting some cute pictures of Allie the morning of her birthday, but because she is a busy little baby, they didn't turn out as fantastic as I would have like....even still, you can see why we think she's so adorable... ;)
"Get this thing off my head"....LOL. She only keeps her headbands on for a split second before she's pulling them off....

Love the smile...

This one makes me giggle just looking at it....look at her crazy hair...it's sticking up further than the black flower....

Ok, Mom....if you don't want me pulling off my hair bow, then I'll just eat the toy...

Love our little Allie!! (more birthday pics to come)

One Year Ago Today...

...our beautiful little lady joined our family. Allie has been the perfect addition, too! Allie is absolutely adored by her two big sisters, she gets smothered in kisses regularly from her two big brothers, she has a Daddy that thinks she is the prettiest thing around, and a Mommy who feels so blessed to have this sweet little girl as part of our family!

Allie has grown so much....like all babies during the first year. But, some of her "big" accomplishments are: walking (not all the time, but she can take about 5-6 steps before falling, while giggling her head off!), she has 10 teeth, including her top 2 molars that just grew in, she has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 1/2 months old, she has the cutest crawl in the entire world (if you've seen her crawl, you know exactly what I'm talking about), she loves to babble & can mimic "mama" and "baba" (bottle). Allie also loves to blow raspberries, loves to eat mac & cheese, applesauce, yogurt, bagels, diced pears, and any type of noodle, really.

We are so glad our Allie-cat is part of our family! Happy 1st Birthday, little lady!! We love you more than you will ever know!!!

No words...just pictures!

The Last Two Months...

...have been busy with SOCCER!! We've had practice Mon-Thurs. nights w/3 games almost every Saturday (one Saturday we had 4 games and another two weekends Annie ended up having a Friday night game, so we only two for the next day...). But, we've sure had a lot of fun!!

Annie is trying out next week for a "select" league....a little bit better than just a regular recreation team, but not quite advanced as a competitive or club team....after all, she's only 8 yrs. old!

Abbie's team was new playing together this season...they started off a little rough, but have improved AMAZINGLY!! Her team is playing in the championship game tomorrow afternoon (wish her luck!!)!

She plays defender....

Parker had fun....but, I'm wondering if he's a little soccer-ed out....we're thinking about trying karate for him....

Connor's already talking about playing soccer in the Spring....we'll see what happens!! :)

9 months old...

...and we love her more every day!!

(showing off her 2 bottom, front teeth....those are the only ones she has so far, but she puts them to good use!!)

(a big cheeser for Abbie, who was doing tricks behind me...)

(playing in the laundry basket)

(eating leaves outside)

(standing up in the kitchen....she thinks she is pretty hot stuff w/all her standing...)

(and she thinks she is big enough to start climbing the stairs....I happen to think differently!)

Allie is adored by us all...she is such a sweet, happy, easy-going baby!! We love our little lady!

First Day of School Pictures!

It's that time of year....I have 3 kids in elementary school, plus a preschooler this year! This week has been busy, but SO good, too!! So far, they are all LOVING school!

My 5th grader...

3rd grader....

At our house before leaving for school....
Over at school, now (the weather was really chilly...they were trying to stay warm!)...

My big kindergartner...

Connor ready for preschool, too!....

Here's to another fantastic school year!!! :)

Testing...

....because we got a new camera for our trip to San Diego! If this blog post works, then that means I've done all the uploading right & I can start sharing pictures from our vacation & all the other fun stuff we've been doing this summer!! :)

So...just some random pictures....

Looks like it might be working & apparently Connor has been a little camera-shy...LOL! More blogs to come!!